Honoring the Puritans

Having read the Puritans for some time now, and falling ever more in love with them, I wish to give tribute to them.

Thanks to men like Don Kistler, previously unavailable Puritan works that have been out of print for many years are readily at hand to us. The benefits of reading the Puritans cannot be expressed! They are incalculable.
Their writings are a very pure source of theology. The style of their writing is characterized by that of beauty, and their element of descriptive language is unparalleled. Every word and thought that is expressed is only that which helps the health of the soul of man and is glorifying to God.
If there are means of grace other than the word of God itself, I say "Here is one!" Indeed their preaching is a wonderful means of grace. Though being dead they yet speak.
No contemporary writings out-shine those of the Puritans. There are only a select few modern-day authors that I will read, and normally they themselves are fans of the Puritans. Read everything you can get your hands on!

Timothy Rogers Quote

"Though the kind hand of our Friend may put us to pain, yet He is but searching our wounds in order to find a cure" (Rogers, Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholy Pg. 22).

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Quote

"It takes the same grace of God to save the most respectable person in the world as (it does) the most lawless person in the world" (Lloyd-Jones Spiritual DepressionPg. 71).

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Quote

"Satan who, though he cannot rob us of our salvation, can definitely rob us of our joy" (Lloyd-Jones Spiritual Depression Pg. 69).

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Quote

"Unhappiness is a condition which does afflict Christian people. There is in this, therefore, a strange kind of comfort which is nevertheless very real. If anyone reading my words is in trouble, let me say this: The fact that you are unhappy or troubled is no indication that you are not a Christian; indeed I would go further and say that if you have never had any trouble in your Christian life I should very much doubt whether you are a Christian at all. There is such a thing as false peace, there is such a thing as believing delusions. The whole New Testament and the history of the Church through the centuries bear eloquent testimony to the fact that this is 'a fight of faith', and not to have any troubles in your soul, is therefore, far from being a good sign" (Loyd-Jones Spiritual Depression 65,66).

Job 11:6

"Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth" (Job 11:6)

Timothy Rogers Quote

"He is God and not man; there is more compassion and real pity in Him than in the most compassionate or tender-hearted man we ever knew. He is God and not man. He whom we have offended, and who can destroy us, is the first to begin to seek reconciliation with us. This is not the manner and way of men, who think that those who have offended them ought to be the first to make advances towards repairing the breach. There is no attribute in the displaying of which the great God glories so much as in this one of mercy; and it is by this that He would be known (Exodus 34:5-7)"(Rogers Trouble of Mind and the disease of Melancholy Pg. 17,18).

Misdemeanors and Felons

There are many "good" Christians (hypocrites too) that view themselves in their own eyes as merely misdemeanors while viewing others as felons--treating them as such. But there is a fundamental doctrinal error here, that is, in the eyes of God there are no misdemeanors, but we are all felons having committed high treason against God. Perhaps compared to others some of us might be quite the criminal, but compared to God we are all guilty of a capital offence. Some fine Christians have need of a fresh understanding of this having drifted far away from their own impressions of guilt while undergoing their conversion experience. Consider this and let us treat one another as equals respecting our sinful conditions; sympathizing with one another: seeing that we all truly suffer under the harshness of that remaining law of sin, as we await our final day of redemption. Some are suffering more than others. Don't add to the pain! Remember how Jesus treated the moral elite compared to the "sinner." The one was treated with contempt while the other received a more mitigated and gracious demeanor from the Lord. Let us be cautious that we do not prove to be such as were the Pharisees, Scribes, and Lawyers of old, but as Christ who says "Your sins are forgiven."

a Kempis Quote

"The just person is sad beyond belief because all the fires of vice can't be extinguished. So why does God permit this? In order to keep humankind forever humble and incessantly imploring divine help" (Thomas a Kempis Meeting the master in the Garden Pg. 42).

a Kempis Quote

"The devout who loves God accepts as coming from God the bitter with the sweet, knows whom to thank (a Kempis Meeting the Master in the Garden Pg. 34).